“There are so many twists and turns”: Danielle Armstrong and Conor MacNeill on The Tourist season two

The Tourist returns to screen for a second season, with screenwriters Jack and Harry Williams moving the story away from the sunny climes of Australia and unravelling the new storylines in Ireland this time around. Elliot (Jamie Dornan) still remains in the dark about the person he is because of his amnesia, but in a bid to find out more about his forgotten backstory, he travels to his native country to try and connect with his past, his family and people who once knew him. 

This series also opens up with a romantic slant on the friendship forged between Elliot and Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald) as she follows him to Ireland. She’s given up her former role in the police force, cut ties with her friends and family and is now on a mission to help him find the answers he wants. Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worse from the start as Elliot is kidnapped, tortured and made to face the demons that he once tried to escape from. Leaving Helen perplexed and determined to find him, she turns to help from the investigation team in Dublin.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of speaking to Macdonald and Conor MacNeill about this new season, some of the challenges of filming in Ireland and what viewers can expect.

The second series of The Tourist jumps about 18 months into the future. A lot has happened during those few months, so what can viewers expect from this new season?

Danielle Macdonald: Essentially we leave season one as everyone remembers: with a big question mark as to what happens to The Man. Then we enter season two, with Helen and Elliot living in a fantasy land. They’ve been living their lives in different countries and ignoring all other life responsibilities and escaping from the past. They’re all loved up and happy, and when they come to figure out more about Elliot’s past, they get thrown into some crazy stuff and they have to face reality again.

Conor, as a newcomer to the series, can you talk about your role as Detective Ruairi Slater? It’s a character we have an emotional introduction to, sobbing and taking off your wedding band. Can we assume there’s a potential marriage breakdown there?

Conor MacNeill: Yes there’s certainly a marriage breakdown. That is true. So he’s gone through quite a hard personal time, but I think he puts a brave front on it with his work life. He’s very good at compartmentalising those two sides, but that’s going on underneath everything that’s going on when he meets Helen. He’s in awe of her skills.

Danielle, reprising your role as Helen, you’ve stepped away from everything stable in your life: your home in Australia, your job in the police force and your friends. You’ve stripped all that away and suddenly you’re in Dublin with your boyfriend. How did you feel when you saw this script from Jack and Harry?

DM: I was like, what the hell? How do I figure this out? Genuinely I undertook this character who was in this place, surrounded by the things that she knows and the struggles that she is going through and then this is an entirely different version of her and she’s never really been personally involved in these circumstances. In season one, she was just helping someone else, but now she’s personally attached and in a completely different world and has different struggles. So, I read the scripts and I loved them straight away. I just loved their writing. It just hooks me in instantly. Their tone and their humour are great. The first scene I filmed was with you (MacNeill). We filmed together up on a ridge in Wicklow and it was terrifying, but kind of amazing. We could always talk things through though as both Conor and Jamie are amazing and happy to run lines and talk through any issues with the scenes coming up. We actually did a lot of that on this season.

CM: With this one in particular, because there are so many twists and turns, you had to keep double-checking with each other, “Is this right? Is this where we are? Is this happening?”

DM: We did a lot of homework. We met up on the weekends and worked through stuff.

CM: We stayed in the same building, so that was really helpful too.

Conor, you’ve played some eccentric characters and some challenging roles in your career. What did you think about the script when you received it and realised as a newcomer that you’re actually a very central character in this journey, and that although Elliot is quite unhinged himself, so are you? How did you prepare for that?

CM: I actually got really excited about it, I’m not going to lie. I love when things are just really contradictory and a challenge. I do think as chaotic as he becomes, I think at his core, he wants to be a good person. I loved the challenge of playing a secret as big as Marie has, which you’ll find out about, but having that as a challenge and how much that bleeds into his work life and how much it controls him was a really interesting thing to dive into – but it was intimidating at the same time too.

DM: You got the coolest, craziest character this season I think. When I read it I was like, “Wow, any guy that can pull this character off…” When we were at the table reading I thought, “Wow, this guy is so good.”

CM: But this is the dream as an actor. That’s our job. The acting is such a standard you just have to match it as well when you step on set. I was really nervous as I was already such a fan of season one, so trying to match something that’s already so brilliant is exciting but intimidating too.

Danielle, how was it coming back into this and building back that relationship with Jamie Dornan as Elliot? Because the dynamic between you both has now completely changed in this.

DM: I think coming back, I haven’t ever done that before, but bringing a character back was an entirely new experience for me. But I loved Helen, I got on really well with Jamie in season one too so coming back I felt a security in that and I instantly trusted Conor too. I have a lot of scenes with Marie and with Elliot and I think they were the two I trusted the most, so it was great because I always felt like I could talk to them both. But yes, the dynamic is different between Helen and  Elliot from season one. I remember the scene that the show opens with, Jamie and I hopped on the phone the night before and spoke about that in detail. We really went through it and even spoke to Jack and Harry about it. So it felt like you had a voice and could be really collaborative. We had an amazing producer Alex who was with us and it always felt like you could be vocal and work it out.

What do you think were some of the highlights and challenges of filming this in Dublin?

CM: I think weather was a big one for us, wasn’t it? It was tricky sometimes and it did the opposite of what it said on the page most days, so if it was sunny on the script, it was raining in Ireland. We had some really sunny days on the days it was supposed to be cold and the glare of the sun and trying to look and not squint was probably my biggest challenge during the outdoor stuff.

DM: We could never do two takes in a row because we’d have ten minutes of sunshine, then ten minutes of rain, or cloud coverage, and it had to be the same, so there was a lot of waiting around.

CM: The lake had its own little micro-climate. It was crazy.

DM: We have a rain sequence later on in the series and I would say that was the most difficult and challenging day for myself. Jamie agrees. Working with a rain machine – if it just naturally rained, it would be better. But the fun stuff was that everyone just got along so well. There was one point where we had one scene and I actually fell on the ground laughing.

CM: I’m not the best driver in the world and I got performance anxiety so I kept stalling every time they shouted action. This happened 13 times. The crew were just like, “Let it roll in.” My reputation was at stake by then.

DM: I almost felt like I was going to pass out from laughing so much but I was also trying to be supportive.

Ezelle Alblas

The Tourist season two is released on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 1^st January 2024.

Watch the trailer for The Tourist season two here: